Global Post: BERLIN, Germany — European leaders reacted to the execution of an American journalist with shock and horror Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “horrified” by the video depicting James Foley’s beheading by members of the militant group Islamic State, or IS, released on YouTube on Tuesday.
Foley was freelancing for GlobalPost and other outlets in Syria when he disappeared nearly two years ago.
The German government extended its “deepest sympathies” to the Foley family, spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday.
“This is a barbaric act that plays on fear,” spokesman for the French government Stephane Le Foll told reporters.
Far from intimidating European leaders, however, Foley’s beheading appears to be galvanizing support for military intervention in Iraq, with France, Germany and Italy deepening their commitment to supporting Kurdish rebels fighting IS.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany can now “imagine providing further equipment, including weapons” to Kurdish forces — doubling down on a commitment to provide non-lethal military supplies that was already seen as a departure from Germany’s usual reluctance to engage in foreign conflicts.
Categories: Americas, Anti-Islam Campaign, Arab World